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Sky-high land and rural housing costs, alongside planning red tape, have proved almost insurmountable barriers for new would-be farmers. But the Ecological Land Co-operative (ELC)...

For hundreds of years we have thought that bees are important for pollinating apples, but is this actually true? I have worked in apple orchards...

Listening to a Gardener’s Question Time programme recently, I heard a lady ask the experts why her shrubs are not flowering as expected: "I prune...

This month Richard explains the process of making sainfoin silage at Daylesford. Starting off in the field he describes how the crop has been established...

The current buzz As I write this, the European Commission is considering whether to extend the current partial ban on neonicotinoid insecticides (neonics) - introduced...

Welcome to the first ‘Editor’s blog’ and first Agricology newsletter - a double treat! You will be only too aware of the major challenges farmers...

British agriculture is a balance between food production and responsible environmental management. There are many challenges farmers and land owners face within their own businesses,...

Picture a sheep... Bleating. Grazing. Chewing the cud. Following the crowd. Possibly lying on its back as sheep are wont to do. All typical sheep...

The Royal Agricultural University (RAU) has been carrying out weeding trials at its Harnhill Manor Farm, near Cirencester, looking at the role of mechanical weeding...

Can dairy farmers lead the way in the UK for antibiotic reduction? Why of course, it is already happening! A pilot project sponsored by AHDB...

In 2010, I took a trip to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New York, USA, to ask some organic dairy farmers about how they managed health and...

... and not just a load of old bull! What if somebody told you that there is a credible alternative to antibiotics, that it is...

How can we manage pernicious perennial weeds without recourse to agrochemicals, or cultivations that can damage soil structure and soil biology? For organic farmers that...

The importance of soil health is now well recognised. With warnings that the UK’s soils have only 100 harvests left, and with flooding a growing...

Richard Smith, Senior Farm Manager at Daylesford Farm discusses harrow combing oats. The oats were drilled late in October which allows the crop to grow...

This month Richard is re-visiting the sheep barn, explaining how they lamb at Daylesford. The sheep have been shorn, scanned and grouped into singles, doubles...

Life is all about choices, some turn out well and others can fire a whole load of challenges your way. The same is true as...

It won’t be news to anyone in the farming sector that times are tough. Farming is influenced by many external elements meaning sometimes the only...

What happens when 42 people co-farm a field of wheat? In September 2015, 42 people; a motley bunch of bakers and bankers, neighbours and scientists...

Companion cropping can sometimes be a difficult term to define, but a learned fellow farmer, Andy Howard , describes it as growing two or more...